Fifty years ago, on September 5, 1976, a bold broadcast from a Barça-Las Palmas fixture altered sports journalism and cultural history in Catalonia forever, marking the birth of ‘Futbol en català‘ on the radio waves.
The Madrid Pitch That Defied Four Decades of Silence
According to historical accounts from Cadena SER, the initiative began when Ràdio Barcelona director Manuel García Terán and a young Joaquim Maria Puyal traveled to Madrid to propose broadcasting FC Barcelona matches in Catalan on FM radio. At the time, General Franco had died just ten months prior, and the Catalan language had been legally silenced and excluded from public life for four decades. When the station’s executives in Madrid asked skeptically if listeners would actually understand the broadcasts, the directors pushed forward anyway, carving out a pioneering space on the FM dial while the traditional Spanish broadcast continued on medium wave.
An Overwhelming Deluge of Letters and Telegrams
The response from listeners was immediate and overwhelming. Ràdio Barcelona was flooded with enthusiastic letters, telegrams, and phone calls.
Puyal later recalled returning to the station’s offices on Casp Street to find scores of messages from overjoyed listeners. While acknowledging that the initial broadcast had room for technical improvement, Puyal emphasized that reclaiming the language for radio and for the wider country was paramount.
Forging a New Sporting Lexicon With Jordi Mir
Adapting sports terminology to Catalan after decades of suppression posed a formidable challenge. Puyal collaborated closely with philologist Jordi Mir to eliminate common Hispanicisms like ‘césped’, ‘banquillu’, or ‘palcu’, working diligently to establish valid linguistic formulas that combined rigorous grammar with popular, spontaneous fan expressions.
Mir noted that the objective was to build a legitimate sporting lexicon that resonated naturally with supporters without losing broadcast spontaneity.
From Basel to ‘Urruti T’estimo’
Over the subsequent decades, this foundational work paved the way for iconic radio milestones, including the live calls of Johan Cruyff’s goals, FC Barcelona’s 1979 European Cup Winners’ Cup triumph in Basel, and the dramatic 1985 league title victory immortalized by Puyal’s famous exclamation, “Urruti t’estimo”.
